Labour contractors agreement and selection

Labour contractors agreement & selection criteria

As previously in our blogs & videos we discussed all the necessary details about constructing a basement of the house, a detailed blog about all the necessary requirements, materials and the costs incurred in completing grey structure of the house and it’s finishing. It was further briefed that we will be discussing the labour contractor agreement along with its procedure. If you’re interested in building a house on a labour contract through a labour contractor in your own supervision then there are two major things you need to take special care of. One of these two things is that during the construction a detailed written contract or agreement should be made with all the working labour contractors on the site to avoid any and all kinds of disputes. Secondly while deciding what labour contractor to choose it is very important that the contractor is chosen on the basis of his expertise and his quality of work.

There are two major steps in constructing a house.

1. Grey Structure
2. Finishing

Grey Structure:

There are four main types of labour contractors in Grey structure

• Labour contractor for civil works
• Plumber
• Electrician
• Steel fixer

Finishing:

Finishing contractors include

• Electrician
• Plumber
• False ceiling contractor
• Wood work contractor
• Painter
• Polish contractor
• Windows works contractor
• Steel works contractor
• Tile/Marble fixer

Labour contractor for civil works is the most important out of all the labour contractors mentioned above. The contract between the client and the contractor can be divided into four (4) main parts.

Part 1

Part one of the contract consists of the details of both the parties (Client or the owner of the house and the labour contractor). The details mentioned in this part are the names of both the parties along with their Identity card numbers and other required details if deemed necessary by the client or the contractor.

Part 2

Part two of the contract will consist of the details about the plot i.e. the location of the plot, plot number, the size of the plot along with the rate that has been finalised between the client and the contractor. The rates can be decided either as per sq.ft for covered area of the house, where a rate is decided and is multiplied with the covered area of all the floors of the house or a lump sum amount of the house can be decided and written down.

Part 3

To be safe form unscheduled and unorganised payments to the labour contractors in part 3 of the contract a detailed payment scheduled should be mentioned so that both of the concerning parties know when they have to give or receive their decided payment at a decided time. It is best to do it stage wise so the client knows that his work is getting done and has no problem with paying the contractor similarly on the other hand contractor would know that he will get paid at a certain stage so he can plan his work accordingly.

Part 4

4th and the last part of the contract will consist of the scope of contractor’s work, in which all the details of the work that the contractor has to do will be mentioned. Labour Contractors scope of work includes, marking of the plot, excavation, brick work, plasters of the walls and to take care and manage all the labours and related works. Furthermore all the machinery and other things required during the construction of the house such as shuttering, scaffolding, mixer, lift, vibrator, compactor etc are also provided on the construction site by the labour contractors. Apart from previously mentioned tasks , constructing the house according to architectural designs and drawings is also in labour contractor’s scope.

Contract & Agreement with other contractors

A brief contract should also be made with other contractors such as plumber, electrician, steel fixer and all finishing works contractors that may include the rate of their work, payment schedule, scope of work along with starting date of work and tentative completion date.

Selection criteria for labour contractors

A few things should be taken care of while deciding the labour contractors such as, before hiring the contractors, client must thoroughly visit the ongoing projects. This will help the client to get familiar with the quality of the work of that contractor, his professionalism and his man power. In the end there is one more thing that a client needs to be aware of, is that in under no circumstances he should give multiple tasks to one contractor as he will hire other contractors on a low rate for his margins and ultimately risking the quality of work required to construct a house. Finally after comparing the different contractors and doing apple to apple comparison, deicide the contractor and avoid unnecessary bargaining as this may also lead to risking the promised quality.